Clarification on TRF Rules and Guidelines

TRF Rules and Guidelines

The rules and guidelines set up are not necessarily a laundry list of posts that are or are not appropriate on TRF. They were written with the spirit of establishing a nice, friendly place for people to get to know each other, talk about building rockets, get constructive advice and generally congregate for a good time for all participants without the politics, name-calling and general hostility of RMR or, to a lesser extent, the way ROL was going prior to it's restructuring.

Lately, we have been receiving a number of complaints about how the tone of TRF has gone downhill and we agree. Follwing is a little bit of clarifcation on the intent of the rules for those who seem to have been having troubles with them. We intend to be more diligent in seeing that these rules and guildelines will be followed both in letter and in spirit.

1. Jokes at the expense of someone else are generally funny only to the joker. You may think it's funny, and, in fact, even the person you're making fun of may find it funny. But, the conversation is not taking place in a void and there may be others who do not find it funny. Posts of this nature that appear to have a hint of malice will be removed. We understand this is subjective, yet if you find that you cannot live with the moderation that occurs along these lines, we suggest you take posts of this nature to another venue where such things are welcome and, in some cases, encouraged.

2. Purposely antagonizing another member is not allowed. A post itself may be well within the boundaries of TRF, but there are times that, in the context of recent discussions and dialogues, it's pretty obvious that a post is intended as an attempt to irritate someone else. We will pull posts that we see that way. Please don't insult everyone's intelligence afterwards by posting "I didn't see what was wrong with that". If you hae an issue with a pulled post, send a PM to a mod or admin. Public posts complaining about these situations will now be removed.

3. When we pull posts, we also pull references to those posts. If you post something on a thread, keep your references in mind. The membership has spoken pretty clearly that they do not want their posts edited. As a result, posts will be pulled. If you have some information that was pertinent beyond the context of the objectionable discussion, please send a PM. Posts are not deleted, but are pulled to a garbage bin. One of us will be happy to copy and paste your post back to you so you can edit and repost.

4. On politics and religion: There are some basic guidelines listed on the TOS. Again, this is not a laundry list, nor is it an exhaustive list of what is or is not allowable. Comments on government intent and/or motive is off limits. Discussing the extent to which you believe the government is trying to control our lives is off limits. We're not going to solve the world's problems here and the antagonism that goes hand in hand with political discussion and commentary far outweigh the benefits in this venue.

5. On the lawsuit: Linking to court documents is fine. Anyone can get access to those and we appreciate those who go through the effort to save the rest of us the effort. However, those leading the legal effort have asked repeatedly that strategies and interpretations NOT be discussed in a public forum as they may damage the case. Please refrain from opining on the links to court documents. We'd like to leave them open, in part because I'm sure the leadership do need to hear from time to time that their efforts are appreciated. However, if people can't refrain from offering up their interpretations, we will begin removing all commentary and locking the original linked posts.

A lot of people used to have a lot more fun here than they do now. Valued members, both vendors and consumers, have left because of harrassment and bickering from the couple of groups who seem to find more value in others' discomfort than they do in contributing constructively to a community that as a whole wants to create a positive, friendly atmosphere.

In short, someone once posted that, "When you're posting here, don't think of it as a place where you can behave like you would out at a bar. Behave as you would if you were a guest in someone's house." Better yet, behave as if you were a guest at your neighbor's 10 year old kid's birthday party. If you want to go home and laugh at the other kids behind their back, go ahead. But while you're here, please show a little respect for the environment you're in.